Ars readers talk back on mapping apps for iOS

If there's anything Ars readers like to talk about, it's (apparently) mapping apps. And when it comes to iOS, there are plenty of opinions on what constitutes the best app for different scenarios. On Friday, we asked Ars readers to vote in a poll on which mapping app was their most preferred under iOS 6—the distinction is important thanks to Apple's decision to roll its own mapping solution while Google released its own, new and improved app just last week.

More than 8,000 readers voted in the poll since then (with votes still incoming), with the largest number of votes going to Google Maps at 52.42 percent as of this writing. Apple Maps came in as a (fairly) close second with 31.19 percent of the vote, still giving Google a more than 20-point lead on Apple's own platform. The number three choice was Waze with 6.01 percent of the vote, with the remaining options—not counting "other" or "none"—making up a combined four percent.

Overall, Ars readers were happy to tell us why they voted the way they did. The reasons reached far and wide, and it's now clearer than ever that there's no single solution that applies to all use cases.

Waze, MotionX GPS Drive, and Navigon getting reader love

As reflected by the poll, when it came to non-Apple and non-Google options, Waze was one of the most mentioned apps by our readership for its accuracy and ability to learn from the user. "Waze, in my opinion, has the most accurate traffic data and therefore the fastest routes of any of them. It's all about which will get me to my destination fastest, and that's Waze. I'm sticking with it for turn-by-turn at least until the others catch up," wrote asdf25.

SWFan agreed: "I voted Google Maps. Though really, I use Waze way more, but I'm not really using it for mapping, I'm using it for local traffic updates. I don't use it to actually navigate, other than to avoid problem areas. When I'm just wanting to look up an address or business I use Google Maps." And so did mr_yellow: "From my research, Waze learns from preferred routes (good for local routing when you know better than what Waze suggests) and the traffic/speed trap alerts are enough to make it my day-to-day car GPS."

MotionX GPS Drive also earned plenty of mentions despite not being included in our poll. "I seldom use the listed mapping apps, for mobile maps/navigation I use MotionX GPS Drive & GPS HD," declared wdonohue. The app has been popular since even before the rollout of iOS 6, and some users still prefer to stick with it.

"I used MotionX GPS Drive before Apple Maps came along and I still have it there if I need it for finding local businesses at my current location and that sort of thing but the basic UI is a mess when it comes to navigating. Too many options in too many different places," added Macnstuff.

And finally there's Navigon—another app that wasn't in the poll but has a strong following. "While I prefer the new Google Maps app to the iOS 6 Maps app, I still don't rely on either of them for turn-by-turn. For that, I purchased Navigon's app for $25 back in August 2010, and I've been completely happy with it ever since," wrote AaronA.

Another user named NullRedShift agreed, adding that they use a combination of Navigon and Apple Maps for different applications. "Navigon is best for driving and I tend to use Apples for walking in cities. Apples sucks at finding things that are not specific addresses manually entered in," NullRedShift wrote. "I also like using Navigon because you download the maps to the phone. I don't want poor signal getting me lost."

International markets

Then there were those readers who noted that their preferred mapping options were entirely different thanks to where they live. In China, it seems neither Apple nor Google can do the job well, according to Xiao-zhi. "In China (where I live) both Google and Apple map apps have shortcomings and what works best in every respect (fast loading, accurate, complete and current augmented reality data including transit and traffic and very good 3D vector graphics) is Baidu Map," Xiao-zhi wrote. "Another paid (RMB12) app I use is "Explore _____" (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, etc.) which is a very nice mass transit mapping, scheduling, routing app for the Metros and related mass-transit with very rich augmented reality data and very accurate Metro scheduling including trip times, etc."

Dassassin threw in two cents when it came to Korea as well. "Thankfully Korea has its own mapping solutions - Daum and Naver, which I use. Google's maps are a close third (they provide English names for many locations, Daum and Naver are only in Korean)," Dassassin wrote. "Apple Maps has almost no correct information about where I live in Korea, and what little information it does have is unsearchable in English and Hangul in many cases. The big joke here is that Apple just enabled location searching in Korea using Siri... a futile exercise in my experience."

The stubborn ones

Of course, there's no arguing when it comes to which app integrates the most into the rest of iOS. As I mentioned in my write-up about Google Maps for iOS, Apple's Maps definitely has the upper hand when it comes to turn-by-turn directions, in part because of its ability to pop up on your lock screen when the next steps are coming up. Ars reader blyan agreed that Apple's ties to the OS give it an advantage when it comes to daily use: "Apple Maps is still tied into everything in the OS. I know there have been pretty massive problems with it elsewhere, but at least where I live, it has actually been MORE accurate (weird, I know) than the old Google Maps was. Well, I suppose part of that is just that I haven't used it as much, but it's never steered me wrong yet, and I love the interface and Siri integration, etc."

And it should come as no surprise that there were still a couple of stragglers who don't want anything new—they just want what they used to have, and they're sticking to iOS 5 for as long as humanly possible. "Should have included an option for iOS 5 Maps - some of us haven't upgraded," declared FoO, who added he had other reasons for avoiding the iOS 6 upgrade as well. But Faramir was much stauncher in his opposition to upgrading: "iOS 5 maps until they pry it out of my hands."

49 Reader Comments

I did some testing, and I'm surprisingly disappointed by Google Maps Turn-By-Turn directions. Despite iOS Maps inability to identify certain locations, the turn-by-turn is usually a lot better than Google's. I've also used Navigon and TomTom. It's definitely TomTom style routing with something extra under the hood.

So Google Maps are awesome for finding those points of interest with the vaguest of requests, and iOS Maps is best for getting there by car or walking.

Google's transit routing is great, but also odd. That first thing Google Maps does is ask you for what route to take, but you can't see it on map. This route selection list is a stumbling block for me. I would really like to see where it's taking me before committing to a selected route. It's actually okay though, because the other options stay on the map. This weird "pick an option, then you can choose" is silly and could've been done better by going directly to the map interface.

In all, Google pulled out all the stops and built a brilliant mapping app. What a great addition to iOS6! Combined, these technologies makes iOS6 a hyper competitive battle ground for mapping with great results coming from all sides.

It makes me wonder how many people (that is, Android fanboys) voted Google Maps even though they don't use an iOS device. Maybe it's a small number, but it does make me wonder. There's so much blind anti-Apple rage on here that any poll is bound to be skewed.

I did some testing, and I'm surprisingly disappointed by Google Maps Turn-By-Turn directions. Despite iOS Maps inability to identify certain locations, the turn-by-turn is usually a lot better than Google's. I've also used Navigon and TomTom. It's definitely TomTom style routing with something extra under the hood.

So Google Maps are awesome for finding those points of interest with the vaguest of requests, and iOS Maps is best for getting there by car or walking.

Google's transit routing is great, but also odd. That first thing Google Maps does is ask you for what route to take, but you can't see it on map. This route selection list is a stumbling block for me. I would really like to see where it's taking me before committing to a selected route. It's actually okay though, because the other options stay on the map. This weird "pick an option, then you can choose" is silly and could've been done better by going directly to the map interface.

In all, Google pulled out all the stops and built a brilliant mapping app. What a great addition to iOS6! Combined, these technologies makes iOS6 a hyper competitive battle ground for mapping with great results coming from all sides.

One major (and I mean MAJOR) shortcoming of the Google's transit routing is that it does not tell you if a bus or a train is early or late. There have been times where I missed the bus because it was early, or missed an important morning meeting because the bus was late. In my opinion, in order for the feature to be fully useful, it needs to let you subscribe to routes and send you notifications when the bus is near. Otherwise it's just a compilation of static data.

I really don't understand the vitriol towards Apple's new Maps. The times I've needed it has provided fast and accurate turn by turn directions. This was something I would have had to pay for on iOS5.

In my personal testing it has not once not gotten me to my destination. In fact I like it because it seems to more intelligently recalculate routes when turns are missed then other solutions I have tried.

The only negative I see is that the satellite images are not as good as Google's, but that doesn't really affect me much. I also miss StreetView, but again not as helpful as turn by turn.

Now Google has released a turn by turn solution, which is great. It would have been great if it was there all along but it wasn't.

As mentioned above iOS now has a very competitive maps ecosystem which hopefully will benefit all.

In my area of the Northeastern US, Apple Maps has never failed me. In fact, I'm quite enamored with the turn-by-turn interface. I like the way it presents a bird's-eye view with route options, then smoothly swoops in to start displaying your route as you go to give you some context. It's a nice clean display, without a lot of distractions, just highlighting what's coming up. Makes it easy to see if your exit or next turn is coming up soon.

I barely EVER use maps, but I did a couple of business searches this past week and curiously enough Apple's Maps was more accurate on those than Google Maps, not by much, I wasn't stranded in the desert or something.

Some things were rather obvious for the simple logic of the streets in my city: Street go in odd numbers to one direction and pairs to the opposite starting with a central point in the city... So i searched a business and google had the right address written but the wrong place... I.E.: 2914 (29th street No.14) was listed on the 33th street. Not that big of a deal, but apple maps actually had the correct placement.

Anyway, actually, on topic... the very little times that I use maps I like google maps more because they are just easier to read and because of street-view for places that I don't know, but apparently I should be using apple maps more in my city... I like Waze as well.

A big complaint I have with Apple Maps is its insane method of displaying traffic congestion. It's hardly noticeable when a route is overlayed atop a road with congestion.

Before Google released their app, I actually was pleasantly surprised by MapQuest. I think AOL did a pretty fantastic job with it -- because I largely thought of AOL and MapQuest as irrelevant, I expected a gawdy interface with kludgy behaviour. It's actually quite nice.

And while I'm loathe to trot out a Gruber argument, I do think he -- as well as this article -- made a salient point: with Google's release, everyone gets the best of all worlds. Google gets more access to user data (if the user allows it), users get a much nicer Google Maps app, and Apple has a complete ecosystem with their Maps app being default.

I'm sticking with Apple Maps by default, with a fallback to Google's for the off-chance I need street view or a missing PoI. My only problem with Google's is the requirement to sign in to provide location or contact address lookups. Seems unnecessary.

I did some testing, and I'm surprisingly disappointed by Google Maps Turn-By-Turn directions. Despite iOS Maps inability to identify certain locations, the turn-by-turn is usually a lot better than Google's. I've also used Navigon and TomTom. It's definitely TomTom style routing with something extra under the hood.

So Google Maps are awesome for finding those points of interest with the vaguest of requests, and iOS Maps is best for getting there by car or walking.

Google's transit routing is great, but also odd. That first thing Google Maps does is ask you for what route to take, but you can't see it on map. This route selection list is a stumbling block for me. I would really like to see where it's taking me before committing to a selected route. It's actually okay though, because the other options stay on the map. This weird "pick an option, then you can choose" is silly and could've been done better by going directly to the map interface.

In all, Google pulled out all the stops and built a brilliant mapping app. What a great addition to iOS6! Combined, these technologies makes iOS6 a hyper competitive battle ground for mapping with great results coming from all sides.

One major (and I mean MAJOR) shortcoming of the Google's transit routing is that it does not tell you if a bus or a train is early or late. There have been times where I missed the bus because it was early, or missed an important morning meeting because the bus was late. In my opinion, in order for the feature to be fully useful, it needs to let you subscribe to routes and send you notifications when the bus is near. Otherwise it's just a compilation of static data.

I see what you mean--and wonder if it has to do with transit agencies not releasing this information and/or offering an API.

I live in DC metro area, and there are a few iOS apps that are specific to WMATA that provide system information. WMATA also has an app of their own.

Aside from that, there is the UI/UX challenge--how to get all of this information into a mapping format for mobile without being overwhelming or confusing.

It makes me wonder how many people (that is, Android fanboys) voted Google Maps even though they don't use an iOS device. Maybe it's a small number, but it does make me wonder. There's so much blind anti-Apple rage on here that any poll is bound to be skewed.

I'd have to say that the ratio of up/down-votes that you've already received (five up and four down, as of this writing) are a dead giveaway that you're exactly right.

The biggest issue for me with iOS maps (in London) is with the POI database - Yelp! over here just do not have the breadth of usage over here that it does in the States, with many outdated and inaccurate places on their database.

That said, when Google app came out I surprised just how many inaccurate POIs they had in the two locations I know well. This last weekend I searched for a store I wanted to visit and was served up a place that closed three years ago.

I did some testing, and I'm surprisingly disappointed by Google Maps Turn-By-Turn directions. Despite iOS Maps inability to identify certain locations, the turn-by-turn is usually a lot better than Google's. I've also used Navigon and TomTom. It's definitely TomTom style routing with something extra under the hood.

So Google Maps are awesome for finding those points of interest with the vaguest of requests, and iOS Maps is best for getting there by car or walking.

Google's transit routing is great, but also odd. That first thing Google Maps does is ask you for what route to take, but you can't see it on map. This route selection list is a stumbling block for me. I would really like to see where it's taking me before committing to a selected route. It's actually okay though, because the other options stay on the map. This weird "pick an option, then you can choose" is silly and could've been done better by going directly to the map interface.

In all, Google pulled out all the stops and built a brilliant mapping app. What a great addition to iOS6! Combined, these technologies makes iOS6 a hyper competitive battle ground for mapping with great results coming from all sides.

One major (and I mean MAJOR) shortcoming of the Google's transit routing is that it does not tell you if a bus or a train is early or late. There have been times where I missed the bus because it was early, or missed an important morning meeting because the bus was late. In my opinion, in order for the feature to be fully useful, it needs to let you subscribe to routes and send you notifications when the bus is near. Otherwise it's just a compilation of static data.

AFAIK only a handful of cities make this information available on a real time basis. But when it is available that'd be a killer feature.

I did some testing, and I'm surprisingly disappointed by Google Maps Turn-By-Turn directions. Despite iOS Maps inability to identify certain locations, the turn-by-turn is usually a lot better than Google's. I've also used Navigon and TomTom. It's definitely TomTom style routing with something extra under the hood.

So Google Maps are awesome for finding those points of interest with the vaguest of requests, and iOS Maps is best for getting there by car or walking.

Google's transit routing is great, but also odd. That first thing Google Maps does is ask you for what route to take, but you can't see it on map. This route selection list is a stumbling block for me. I would really like to see where it's taking me before committing to a selected route. It's actually okay though, because the other options stay on the map. This weird "pick an option, then you can choose" is silly and could've been done better by going directly to the map interface.

In all, Google pulled out all the stops and built a brilliant mapping app. What a great addition to iOS6! Combined, these technologies makes iOS6 a hyper competitive battle ground for mapping with great results coming from all sides.

One major (and I mean MAJOR) shortcoming of the Google's transit routing is that it does not tell you if a bus or a train is early or late. There have been times where I missed the bus because it was early, or missed an important morning meeting because the bus was late. In my opinion, in order for the feature to be fully useful, it needs to let you subscribe to routes and send you notifications when the bus is near. Otherwise it's just a compilation of static data.

AFAIK only a handful of cities make this information available on a real time basis. But when it is available that'd be a killer feature.

Exactly... I wrote my own transit app a while back, using the web services our local transit agency exposes. It exposes APIs to get location data for the buses and trains, how far away they are, timing, etc... I found that most of the time, it seemed those values were simply extrapolated from static time tables, as there were many times it said the train was 100 ft away, and it never showed up, or that the next train was 10 minutes away, but it never arrived etc... The times seemed to always match with the published schedule.

One issue I have with Apple Maps here in London is that when you zoom out ever so slightly then all the icons (showing you where the tube stations are) disappear. Which isn't so helpful when you are trying to work out how to get somewhere.

Oh and that it frequently gets the address wrong. I've lost count of the number of times I've turned up somewhere only to find that I'm in the wrong place. Last time it was the Cuban Embassy near Tottenham Court Road, Apple Maps was about 5 streets out.

I'd love it if iOS 7 allowed you to define different default email, calendar and mapping apps so you could click from other apps into them - but I suspect Apple will never do it as they like to ensure that third party apps are treated as second class citizens.

One major (and I mean MAJOR) shortcoming of the Google's transit routing is that it does not tell you if a bus or a train is early or late. There have been times where I missed the bus because it was early, or missed an important morning meeting because the bus was late. In my opinion, in order for the feature to be fully useful, it needs to let you subscribe to routes and send you notifications when the bus is near. Otherwise it's just a compilation of static data.

The late/early times does not and can not be provided simply by Google. There are specs in the GTFS format that allow for live updates. This is totally dependent on your local transit agency and the ability of their systems. It is more likely that your local agency would release their own app that plugs into their backend system (I.E. Routematch, etc.). Source: IT person in Public Transit.

I'm one of those six percent using Waze, and I finally got around to spending some quality time in both Apple Maps and Google Maps on Friday afternoon... I won't exclude the possibility that my own experience is skewed somewhat by the older handset I'm using (an iPhone 4... no "S") but I'm just not impressed by either of them. Map accuracy doesn't even come into play for me, as I just don't much like the lacking feature-sets of each app, as compared to Waze. (I could go into the details... but I'm already starting to feel a bit like a shill as it is, so I'll just stop here.)

So, yeah... I guess I would have to paraphrase Faramir: Waze until they pry it out of my hands.

The biggest issue for me with iOS maps (in London) is with the POI database - Yelp! over here just do not have the breadth of usage over here that it does in the States, with many outdated and inaccurate places on their database.

That said, when Google app came out I surprised just how many inaccurate POIs they had in the two locations I know well. This last weekend I searched for a store I wanted to visit and was served up a place that closed three years ago.

I've experienced similar in London. Google tried to send me into the middle of Chapel Market to get to Angel tube station when I was testing it the other day. Apple got it bang on. Have you tried Citymapper (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/citymap ... 63298?mt=8)? it genuinely knocks spots off of Google maps for transit information.

In my view the new Google maps for iPhone is severely flawed. Why do I say that?

My home location does not exist in Google maps nor can I edit its perceived errant location to change it. When I perform the edit and save, the location returns to the original wrong location. My home simply doesn't exist and there's nothing I can do to change it.

In other mapping systems such as the native Apple app or Mapquest, I do exist.

I like the idea of Waze but it just drains your battery too fast and is too inconsistent to be used for regular use. Google maps is my preferred maps app just because of the consistency of its user experience and no frills features.

I'm definitely one of those people who prefers to tell Siri where I want to go and have it just take me there, but I do like the new Google Maps quite a lot. I did some testing with my usual local routs and Google held up nicely. I also didn't mind Google's style of turn by turn, but i much prefer what Apple can do with your lock screen.

My biggest complaints concerning the Maps applications doesn't actually have anything to with the applications themselves, but rather the integration. Why can't I tell my phone that when i click on an address or tell Siri to "take me home" that i want it to use Google Maps (or Waze or Navagon or anything else) to open it instead? And when certain websites make it impossible to select and copy an address from an event or listing, it would be nice to be able to click the "get directions" link and have it launch the "default maps app" instead of having to either manually type it in or read the address aloud to Siri and hope she gets the numbers right.

And also... people like facebook need to make sure that you can select the address text for copy-paste on their events pages. Christ that's a pain in the ass.

Only thing wrong with Apple Maps that I've experienced so far is that it seems completely unaware of the Citgo gas station that's a mile up the road from my house. I created an OpenStreetMap account and added it as a POI (since it was not listed there either) so hopefully it will eventually make its way into Apple's database. Other than that, Apple Maps hasn't steered me wrong so far.

In my opinion many of the impressions of Apple Maps in this comment section are unbelievably positive considering how dreadful my experience has been. To me a mapping app must have accurate map data. Everything else is subordinate. While traveling extensively within the US and continental Europe I found so many inaccuracies and omissions in Apple Maps' data that I now consider the app unusable for anything other than comic relief. Google Maps is not perfect in this respect either, but regarding quality and quantity of data, there is no head-to-head comparison to be made. Apple Maps is not a contender. It is not in the ball park. It is not in the same league. It is not even playing the same sport.

One common type of error within Apple's data is illustrated by this example: BHM, Birmingham Shuttlesworth Internation Airport. Apple Maps directed me to the southwest corner of the airport. It probably did this because I was coming from the southwest, and that was the closest point of the airport as the crow flies. However, this is not where anyone looking for directions to BHM would need to go. In fact, this particular misguidance is about 15 minutes of incorrect in normal traffic. Navigating to "Birmingham Internation Airport Terminal" with Apple Maps directed me to the military entrance which is even less useful. Yet, asking Google Maps to navigate to "BHM" or "Birmingham International Airport" directed me exactly where I needed to go. The point of this is to depict a key differential. Google has managed to incorporate details such as "where is the terminal located" into their data and the software is smart enough to direct you to those points while Apple manages to direct you to the nearest point of a large geographic feature.

Considering the rate at which Google continues to gather data across the globe I find it highly unlikely that Apple Maps will ever be able to bridge the data gap, yet it seems rather equally likely that Google will be able to address the perceived shortcomings with the front-end. So, between the two, my vote goes unquestionably to Google Maps.

Sadly, I have yet to try out any of the other apps. It seems that there are other contenders to evaluate.

I've used Apple's maps a handful of times since getting my iPhone 5, and boy did I miss Google Maps. I usually opted for their (lousy) web interface before the app came back. I used Apple's maps for directions 4 times: 2 times it did not have the destination, 1 time it was off by several kilometers, and 1 time it gave me walking directions that ended up directing me to a highway with no pedestrian walkway or passthrough. I live in Europe; maybe it's less terrible in the USA.

I used Navigon for a couple years, when I was using prepaid SIMs without a data plan, and I found it to be awful. Laggy, ate battery power like candy, and difficult to use the interface. I haven't even installed it on my current phone.

The biggest issue for me with iOS maps (in London) is with the POI database - Yelp! over here just do not have the breadth of usage over here that it does in the States, with many outdated and inaccurate places on their database.

That said, when Google app came out I surprised just how many inaccurate POIs they had in the two locations I know well. This last weekend I searched for a store I wanted to visit and was served up a place that closed three years ago.

POIs can only be their best when programed by small local developers, companies to a area or country, in that way maps will move closer to be more like a OS and in that scenario Google will be lost on IOS and Windows, also the same conditions will apply to Siri like programs and ultimately Search. All three Ai, Search, and Maps will simply be part of the OS.

Only thing wrong with Apple Maps that I've experienced so far is that it seems completely unaware of the Citgo gas station that's a mile up the road from my house. I created an OpenStreetMap account and added it as a POI (since it was not listed there either) so hopefully it will eventually make its way into Apple's database. Other than that, Apple Maps hasn't steered me wrong so far.

In case you didn't know, there's a facility to report a missing PoI from directly within the Apple Maps app. Tap the page curl and there's a link in the upper-right to "Report a Problem" with a list of categories. One of these is "Location is missing" After selecting that, you can move the pin to missing location (if you drop a pin first, zoom in on it and then do the report a problem link, it'll remember it), and give it identifying information.

I think that'll be more likely to show up in Apple's database. The more appropriate thing to do is probably to file it in both, in case Apple doesn't share its PoI db with OSM.

iOS Maps is definitely being improved. Bancroft Ontario is no longer in the middle of a field, for instance. As I suspected, it seems the local gazetteer import was wrong, and is now fixed.

Problems that remain seem more minor. Greenspace remains far too green, roads too small, and town names don't appear at the right zoom levels. My biggest problem now is the sorting/searching, which tends to list small local features much higher than larger more distant ones - streets in Toronto over towns further away.

I barely EVER use maps, but I did a couple of business searches this past week and curiously enough Apple's Maps was more accurate on those than Google Maps, not by much, I wasn't stranded in the desert or something.

Some things were rather obvious for the simple logic of the streets in my city: Street go in odd numbers to one direction and pairs to the opposite starting with a central point in the city... So i searched a business and google had the right address written but the wrong place... I.E.: 2914 (29th street No.14) was listed on the 33th street. Not that big of a deal, but apple maps actually had the correct placement.

Anyway, actually, on topic... the very little times that I use maps I like google maps more because they are just easier to read and because of street-view for places that I don't know, but apparently I should be using apple maps more in my city... I like Waze as well.

Tested with the wifes iPhone.

Funny, I had almost the opposite experience where I live. I'm about 40 miles north of Atlanta and Google business searches are better by far. Apple picks up all the major retailers, but misses almost all of the mom and pop shops. I'm sure it will improve over time.

As far as navigation goes Apple maps didn't get me stranded or lost but seem to always pick the longest route first. I know I can pick another but I'm curious as to why it picks that one. That being said I use Google Maps, I think because its become second nature and since I'm an android user I like the familiarity of it.

I bought Navigon back when it was $99, and I still like it for turn-by-turn auto navigation. I do find that it requires external power for anything other than very short trips, but I think this is a general issue with turn-by-turn navigation. Navigon's directions mostly been reliable, but it has directed me incorrectly a couple of times, and sometimes picks routes that are a bit odd, but functional. For general walking around town, I use Apple's maps. So far I haven't encountered any of the much ballyhooed errors, and I appreciate the fast map loading. For transit routing, I use Google. It has been highly reliable where I live in Boston, although there is room for improvement. I would love a transit routing app that would recommend the most *robust* route--i.e. the one with the least delay if I missed a projected connection because a train or bus was delayed. I don't know of any app that does this (if anybody does, please let me know). I used Hopstop for a while when Apple dropped Google, and it seemed to work pretty well, but I haven't had as much experience with it as Google. On the other hand, if I want to know when the next bus is arriving at or near my location, I use Smart Ride.

I tried Waze early on, and it gave me some crazy directions. Considering the general enthusiasm for it now, perhaps I should give it another chance.

2. It needs the ability to turn off the accelerometer for some of the modes. if my iPhone is pointed 15° to my right, the "god's eye view" is also pointing that way too. Makes it less convenient for the car.

3. It needs contact integration.

For now, I'm going to stick with Waze. I could see that changing though....

Maybe someone who has used Apple or Google more can answer how accurate their traffic and time is?

Waze has an excellent understanding of route times based in it's user database and is aggressive at using it. Old iOS maps, based on Google of course, was dumb as a door-nail when it came to patters. I'm not talking about a current highway traffic jam by the way I'm talking about real life patterns and averages - how long do you wait on average to turn from Oak to Elm at 5pm on a weeknight? Waze figures this out and I trust it.

For Japan I started to use Chizu Maru again, it has the most detailed maps of them all. But in the usual japanese data overload way. I am glad that Google maps is back, because their maps are based on Zenrin Data, which is another japanese map company. The Apple maps are pretty much useless, if there are no station layouts marked at all. Plus, not having any transit info in Tokyo and only turn by turn is pretty much useless here.

All you need to know to recognize just how bad Apple Maps is, is that it doesn't recognize the 5 separate boroughs of NYC. For instance, an address in Brooklyn will show up as an address in Manhattan for mapping and navigation purposes.

We aren't talking about some remote area - we are talking about NYC. It's beyond comprehension how this awful product was released. Un f'n real! Needless to say, Google Maps has my vote.